Cabo Corrientes (

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...

Currents) is a rocky outcrop on the Argentine coast between the Chica and Varese beaches in

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Argentine Sea, Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón Partido, General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires ...

, in the extreme southeast of

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

, on the

Argentine Sea The Argentine Sea () is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the southern tip of South America. It ranges from the mouth of the estuary of the Río de la Plata in the north (35th parallel south) to the Isla de los Estados in the south, ...

of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. It is located at the geographical coordinates . Cabo Corrientes was originally called Cabo de las Dos Corrientes (Cape of the Two Currents), since it is the point where a warm current from the tropical coast of Brazil (

Brazil Current The Brazil Current is a warm water current that flows south along the Brazilian south coast to the mouth of the Río de la Plata. Description This current is caused by diversion of a portion of the Atlantic South Equatorial Current from where ...

) converges with a current of frigid water from the Antarctic ( Falklands Current).

History

Sir Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...

in his 1577

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

voyage introduced Cabo Corrientes in the

cartography Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

of his time with the name ''Cape Lobos'', due to the large colony of

sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...

s (''lobos de mar'' in Spanish) in the area. Admiral William Brown anchored at Cabo Corrientes in early January 1826 waiting for ships from Carmen de Patagones, which he would transfer to the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (; ), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda, Colonia, Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and ...

in mid-January and to participate in the naval campaign of the

Cisplatine War The Cisplatine War was an armed conflict fought in the 1820s between the Empire of Brazil and the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata over control of Brazil's Cisplatina province. It was fought in the aftermath of the United Provinces' an ...

. The national government had sent him to the aid of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

because it had been blockaded on 21 December 1825 by a powerful squadron from the

Brazilian Empire The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and Uruguay until the latter achieved independence in 1828. The empire's government was a representative parliamentary constitutional ...

under the command of Vice Admiral Rodrigo José Ferreira de Lobo. Pioneers slowly populated the region, including the lands around the cape. In 1847 the landowner José Gregorio de Lezama took advantage of the polítical situation in the Buenos Aires campaign and bought the lands of Ladislao Martínez Castro, among them the " Laguna de los Padres" ranch to the northwest of Cabo Corrientes. Due to his part on the Freemen of the South rebellion against Buenos Aires' governor

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confedera ...

, Martínez Castro was forced to sold their properties for a throw-away price, and all his cattle was confiscated. The rural estate occupied roughly the lands of the old

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

mission of

Our Lady of the Pillar Our Lady of the Pillar () is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD 40, AD 40 while he was pre ...

, that had operated from 13 November 1746 to 1 September 1751. In 1850 he also bought the "La Armonía" ranch, and in 1852 the "San Julián de Vivoratá" ranch. Playa Varese y Cabo Corrientes

José Gregorio de Lezama sold the three ranches in August 1856 to a Portuguese-Brazilian society consisting of

Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá (; 28 December 1813 – 21 October 1889), was a Brazilian entrepreneur, industrialist, banker and politician. Born to a family of small '' estancieiros'' (ranchers), Sousa became one of the world' ...

, who kept 50%, the other half being evenly divided between Sa de Pereira, Pereira de Faria, Figueredo and the Portuguese José Coelho de Meyrelles, consul of the Kingdom of Portugal in Buenos Aires, who was put in charge of managing the ranches and establishing the first '' saladero'' in the present Mar del Plata streets of Pedro Luro Avenue and Santiago del Estero in Cabo de las Corrientes, which formed the base of the future city of Mar del Plata.

History

Footnotes

Notes

Sources

External links